Children's Art

- Is it true that only mad people can draw a perfect circle freehand?
- No - there is no such thing as perfection in a drawing.
an interview with Tony Hart (link)

Do you remember, just before Newsround, watching Hartbeat for ideas you'd never try, but adults seemed to think children liked to watch arts&crafts shows and we did, but we never actually copied what they were doing. They entertained us with their crazy ideas, and we humoured them by watching. I was 17 when I realised that "sticky-back plastic" meant "sellotape", and so maybe I could have made something. I never had crate paper though, or the liquid glue you kept in a jar with a little spatula stuck to the sides. You had them at school, but not at home.

The Gallery was always the best part of Hartbeat, humming that catchy tune (can you remember how it goes??), and mocking the standard of submissions. My sister would say: "She's 5 years younger than you" and i'd say "Well I could still do better even then". The cosy world of Tony Hart, his cravates, Morph, came to an end as the BBC pulled the plug, and in it's place we had the ITV alternative: Art Attack! You can tell from the exclamation mark that this was an altogether more hip and colourful program. The set wasn't an old man's studio - it was an oversized pencil case inhabited by the "ultimate loser" Neil Buchanan (pictured). I think he reintroduced Morph, and Tony and Neil are good friends, but I felt it was a major shift in the landscape of childrens television. Bloody Thatcher.

Which brings me to the art, and our appraisal of children's creativity. Call me harsh, but i'm not a big fan of meaningless encouragement. There's no point nodding to a kid and saying "great work" because after a while it becomes automation, and futile. I'd prefer to look at it critically, and praise them where it's due. Indeed, I find it very funny to mock rubbish pictures, and laugh at how pathetic some "attempts" can be... Maddox is an infamous critic of children's paintings. His analysis is very funny and  I like it.

But yes it is a little harsh, which all brings us to the art of Don Devrie.

He's a professional artist, and takes pictures drawn by his young neice and modifies them to create fantasy. It's a beautifully creative enterprise.

Which brings me to Alex Garland's most recent book The Coma (Observer review | buy it) I almost bought in on my way through Heathrow the other week, and regret it now because I ended up watching a shite film... The Coma is very very short, and that shouldn't be frowned upon. The text is accompanied by exquisite woodcuts created by his father, the political cartoonist Nicholas Garland (Telegraph article)

It's a wonderful father-son collaboration, bridging mediums to create a prompt. Something to question similar boundaries to those explored within the plot of the novel. It says that art is about more than "just having a go", but freedom to tinker and create should be paramount. There is no such thing as perfection in drawing, so why not explore a little and take a chance. It's something we should encourage all children to do, and if they have a guiding hand from their father or uncle, it's all the more charming.

Comments

[Andrew Mellor]

There's a culture fast emerging in this country where creativity amongst the young is all viewed on the same plane of worthiness. Something crap is praised and hailed as a fine achievement and rated equally to something genuinely good because children are being 'creative' and that's all that matters. It's a symptom of this age which could have negative consequences. See the recent book 'On Creativity' by MD of The Barbican Centre, Sir John Tusa (pub. Methuen).